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Thursday, October 15, 2015

#Suffragette -- a must see film for women

Sometimes films are not easy entertainment but powerful
statements about humanity. Suffragette, the recent release about the struggle
for British women’s equal rights is such a film. It is the first major film to
examine the issue and long overdue. Until now, the stereotypical image of a
suffragette is Mrs Banks parading up and down the hall, singing and then
requiring Mary Poppins to rescue her and her children. It is a film every woman (or man for that
matter) should see, preferably with their daughter or their mother. Women
account for 50% of the human race give or take and it is easy to forget how
hard one sex had to fight for basic human rights. And the fight (which isn't fully over) took place less than a hundred years ago.

The film went on general release in the UK on the 12th. It is going on limited release in the US on the 27th of October. It is worth tracking down to see it.

The subject is not an easy one. The struggle for equality
was not peaceful in the UK. But there again, the stakes were high. Women were
the property of men. They did not have the right to vote, to look after their
own money or indeed have any say about their children. Such things were
considered beyond their capacity. The
film makes this abundantly clear. They were also not taken seriously until they
started to misbehave.

The film follows Maud, a worker ( Carey Mulligan) in a laundry who has few
prospects. She was born out of wedlock, and the laundry has been her home. She
is married with a son but it is clear that she still is being abused by the
manager. At the start of the film, she is not interested in politics but by the
end, she is committed to the cause of improving women’s status in society.
There were parts of the film which made me cry and parts that had me literally
sick to my stomach. There were a number of times I wanted to punch various men
in their smug over-bearing faces.

One of the most poignant parts of the film was at the end
when the list of countries and the year when women gain suffrage happened. In
2015 Saudi Arabia promised, only promised mind you, to give some women the
right to vote. And because of this film,
one can easily imagine the difficulties that those women suffer.

The film highlighted the big injustices as well as the petty
ones. For example, a well to do suffragette asks her husband who is an M.P. to
post bail for the five other women who were arrested with her. She in part
feels responsible for the predicament Maud is in because she was the one who
encouraged her to take part and to give her testimony to parliament. He
refuses. She says in a low tone but it is my money and he still refuses, saying
she shamed him. The larger injustices such as a man being able to put children
for adoption without consulting his wife is also highlighted. Giving women equal rights to their children
in the UK only happened in the 1920s. So the struggle was not just about
voting, but also about how women were treated in society. There is no love
interest. Maud’s husband who seems decent enough at the beginning has no
epiphany. But that is fine, the film is powerful and shows Maud’s growth.
Helena Bonham-Carter is excellent as the woman who married a pharmacist so that
she could use her intelligence. And
Meryl Streep has a brief cameo as Emmeline Pankhurst. (Something which is not
brought out in the film is that Mrs Pankhurst had she not died, would have
stood for election as a Tory, not a Labour candidate. Labour came late to the
woman’s movement as they were formed to serve the working class man.)

After the film finished and the credits started to roll, my
fellow movie-goers and I sat, no one moving and then someone started to clap.
The applause echoed through the cinema and then people started to move. My
daughter and I had a lively discussion about women and their rights after the
film. I suspect that once the film is out on dvd, many high school history
teachers will acquire it to show their students. But it is important to support this film so
that more films are made about the same subject.

The struggle for equality does continue today and it is easy
to forget the price many women paid so that women living in Britain can enjoy
certain freedoms, freedoms we often take for granted. Women have obtained/regained many rights but
they were hard won. One of the things I know from my own research is how women
lost some of those rights and had their freedoms curtailed. We have to be vigilant. And some of that can start by seeing this film.

Michelle Styles writes warm, witty and intimate historical
romance in a wide range of time periods. Her most recent book was Summer of the
Viking published in June 2015. You learn more about Michelle and her books on
her website – www.michellestyles.co.uk